Anime! - a brief explanation
Reviews
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Neon Genesis Evangelion
Blue Gender
Hold on a minute, what the heck is anime? Well Anime is just basically Japanese cartoons (yeah the idea was borrowed form the word “animation”). Whereas cartoons are like basically for children, Anime is not purely that.
Here are some examples of children’s cartoons:
*Scooby-Doo
*Flintstones
*Simpsons
*South Park
*Smurfs
“Simpsons and South Park,” I hear you say…”but that’s an adult’s cartoon because they have some swear words in them.” Yes, you’re completely right, but as I explain deeper into Anime you’ll figure out why the Simpsons is no where near comparable to Anime.
Simpsons South Park
Japanese animation reflects Japanese society. Everything in Anime is how the Japanese speak, feel, eat and express themselves. Key differences which separate the Japanese animation to the cartoons of the rest of the World.
Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)
Just compare the Anime quality with the Simpsons...
Whilst western cartoons are of any quality at all in both story and animation terms, Anime is just basically the best animation experience ever. An episode of Simpsons may take 4 months to create (if that) but on the other hand, a scene from and Anime movie will take a whole month or two to clarify, research and detail. Yeah, that’s only one scene - couple of seconds of footage.
Anime is never rushed. The fans don’t want rubbish. Some Anime movies hold complexity in story-lines that are equivalent to 10 of the most intricate Hollywood sci-fi’s put together. Diversity is only the brink of the Anime culture though.
Hi-tech life is an almost always must in Japanese animation. It reflects how the Japanese lead their way of life. You can easily expect to watch an Anime movie and see in the first opening scenes a teenager wake up from a water tub, rub her eyes, take off her body monitors which are placed on both her nipples, his feet and back, then wake up to have her TV switched on automatically as she walks to the table to get a glass of orange juice.
So basically, that teenager in her room, has been sleeping in a water chamber which cussions the body whilst in recovery. It also monitors her sleeping patterns, gives him a report of how her body is functioning, how much urine is needed to be excreted etc. Yeah, “breasts” you say, “you can’t have that sort of stuff in a cartoon” you add. Well why not?
Anime is crucial in that factor. Breasts and arses etc are nothing to be ashamed of. Hold, on don’t get me wrong, Anime isn’t for prevents. A Japanese kid of 5 years of age would just watch that scene straight, like a western kid would watch the teletubbies for breakfast. So what if she takes something of her nipples? Is that morally wrong? Of course not, if the child is taught at a younger age about this type of stuff, heck, by the time he’s in his early teens he’s mature enough to know almost anything.
Sorry if I’m going off the rack here, but this is where Anime is different. Things that are odd to westerners are common as blinking to the Japanese. Waking up from a water chamber is not how most people wake up, but there’s nothing wrong in that. The common viewer in America would question its very existence, but in Japan, this sort of stuff exists, if not in reality – but in the future to come. Anime is not afraid to view the future. The culture accepts this sort of stuff. 90% of all Japanese animation is set in the future.
Anime can be any genre, romantic, action, sci-fi (the most popular), martial arts action, fighter plane action etc. It’s comparable to the highest Hollywood films there are, such as; the Matrix, Titanic, Star wars, Godfather, Home Alone etc, but everything is hand drawn. That keeps the cost down, but doesn’t mean that standards are let to slip. Voice casts, orchestras the lot are used, nothing is left. In fact some of the detail in hand drawn art is so beautiful it more than makes up for it not being done with actors.
But this raises the question whether Anime would be Anime with out hand drawn figures. You can never put Anime into Hollywood and expect a good result (Street Fighter anyone?) It just doesn’t work. The people don’t want it. So what do the public want out of Anime? What makes Anime, Anime?
Cuteness is the key to Anime...
You see the two pictures above? Yes, they're just typical Anime school girls in typical Japanese outfit. Notice how she’s drawn. Now compare it to the American school girl below. Do you see how “cute” the Anime girl is? Japanese animation is basically cute. The eyes are so important in Anime. It’s the trademark to Japanese cartoons. If you see a girl with long lashes and those attractive eyes, it’s Anime. You know it is. Just take a look at the pictures below from some different Anime series and movies. All of the girls bear the trademark. That is what the audience wants in Japan. If you try to sell Japanese animation without the eyes, you’re not going to get far.
Above: Typical western animation. Compare it to the two girls above...
As a rule of thumb all females are attractive. They almost always have the perfect figure and have sexy voices. This appeals to the male audience and is kind of like a welcome note for the viewers to come back for more.
You can expect relationships in Japanese animations, with the girl being attracted to the boy for example. There’s almost always flirting involved – another trademark for Anime. One of the two in love would also be shy, as you’d expect, but this is what the Japanese majority are like and do like to see. Some dirty jokes nestled in-between it all doesn’t harm anyone either does it?
Yeah, there is an adult form of Anime but I really don’t want to go into that though.
Basically Anime is a whole mixture of things, ranging from different topics, but almost always, the Japanese theme is included in the cartoons. Most Japanese animation is set in the near future, probably because most audiences like to see that setting (Blue Gender), but others are set in the countryside – in the middle ages (Princess Mononoke) and sometimes they are set in the present. But the time-scale doesn’t effect the aspects of Anime.
To put it simply, you must watch a couple of Japanese Anime movies to understand. Try renting them out from your local video store as all good stores stock them. - Tanim® 25th August 2002